He's most famous for creating "GeGeGe no Kitaro," but has also gained fame for a 4-volume series of historical manga, Showa: A History of Japan, covering Japan's history from 1926-1989, with a special emphasis on the war years. Mizuki served in the war and lost his left arm.

This time, a female Korean scholar has written a book downplaying Japan's role in coercing Korean women for the "comfort stations" set up for Japanese soldiers and emphasizing Korean collaborators' roles in luring Korean women into these positions. The scholar has been widely attacked in Korea. As usual, read the comments for other angles to the story.

I've been reading a lot of things on this topic lately, and it's crazy interesting to get a much more intimate look at such an ugly time in human history. I hope it's not too easily forgotten, and I hope the statue in front of the Japanese embassy stays there.

Bitterness, from what I could gather, but I think it stands for a little more than that in terms of being a tribute to the women's suffering and torture that seems to be little talked about in the overall narrative of country-hatred-aggression. People talk about comfort women in a very general, glossed-over sense that doesn't do any justice to the real faces of the victims or the horrors those women endured, and I like to think of it as giving a face to the whole thing.

I can't really figure out how to put that more clearly, so I hope it makes sense.

Apparently, five people connected to a Hong Kong publisher that puts out books critical of Mainland China's ruling elite have "disappeared" and are believed to have been detained in China, although there's not confirmation of that:

The recent disappearance of five men tied to a publisher of provocative books about China’s top leaders has alarmed many people in this semiautonomous city, some who fear that the historic agreement guaranteeing the former British colony its separate government and legal system may have been dealt a severe blow.

Perhaps cracking down on fictional sexual violence makes many people feel that at least something is being done. However, while we are busy debating the human rights of fictional characters, nothing is being done to protect the human rights of actual, living women.

I'm proud of you Glorious Nippon for remaining the rare voice of reason in the world folding itself up over who is more offended by everything they can think of.

A female idol was in critical condition after being viciously stabbed during an event for apparently refusing a gift from a reported fan in Koganei, western Tokyo, police said Sunday.

Mayu Tomita, 20, has yet to regain consciousness after being stabbed nearly two dozen times in the neck and chest on Saturday.

Tomohiro Iwazaki, 27, was arrested after witnesses said he attacked Tomita with a knife during an event at around 5 p.m. Saturday. The suspect admitted attacking her, the police said.

Tomita may have been a victim of stalking. The Metropolitan Police Department said the idol told them earlier this month that a man named Iwazaki had been persistently sending her messages via her blog and Twitter account.

I feel like this is the logical conclusion to fan delusions of closeness with celebrities, especially idols who are marketed as more approachable girl-next-door types. I hope the crazy fan gets jail time at the very least, and I hope the poor girl makes a full recovery.

Wow, I'd never heard of any of that stuff--or even Park Geun-hye--before that piece, but that's crazy stuff.

Strangely, I still think she sounds like progress compared to past South Korean presidents, so hopefully the country continues where she left off with an even better president. I do feel sorry for her on a personal level though, because it seems she's allowed her life to be utterly ruined by her white-knuckled grip on the psychic abilities of the Choi family.

Japan in the news today! So Space World, an amusement park, bought and froze 5000 already dead fish in their skating rink entitled "Freezing Port." Other than those 5000 fish, there were also large photographs frozen in the ice (for instance, that whale thing). I think it was a pretty cool idea. If they had had some way to make the ice clear and more visible, despite the skate marks, it would have been even cooler.

But, some Japanese equivalent to PETA became outraged, as well as people on social media, and after a very fruitful two weeks it was taken down. They will hold a religious ceremony and reuse the fish as fertilizer. Any thoughts? Mine are obvious, as the fish were already dead, purchased from a fish market. They were probably already planning to reuse them like this when the attraction ended, since they were kept frozen. There wasn't anything wrong with it.

Eh, it's wasteful of what could've been food, but I've no ethical stance one way or the other otherwise. I'm more bothered that the fish are sticking out of the ice, to get run over by ice skates and send fish chunks all other the place, lol.